The present invention relates to a document feed apparatus for a bank passbook of the like.
In order to greatly facilitate customer service, "on line" computer systems have been developed for banks. The data for each customer's account is stored in the memory of a central computer. Each branch of the bank has one or more remote terminals which communicate with the central computer and thereby have instant access to each customer's account records.
Generally, each customer is given a passbook which records all the transactions for his account. When the customer makes a deposit or withdrawal, the bank teller inserts the passbook into the terminal and enters the amount of the transaction. The computer then computes the customer's new balance and a printer in the terminal prints the amount of the transaction, the new balance and the date in the passbook.
In order to speed up the entry of data in the customer's passbooks, it is desirable to have the terminal apparatus automatically feed the passbook to the proper position to print the new entry. To achieve this purpose, some means for sensing the position of the previous entry must be provided. It is known in the art to sense the previous line of printing per se and stop the feed of the passbook in response thereto. However, it is difficult to stop the passbook immediately due to the inertia of the mechanical feed components and it is also impossible to mount an optoelectronic sensor and a print head in the same position.
Furthermore, it is difficult to reliably sense the lowermost position of a line of alphanumeric characters such as numbers. For this reason, it is known in the art to print a stop mark adjacent to the last data entry in the passbook. The stop mark may be sensed much more reliably than the data per se. The stop mark may be in the form of a hyphen between the month and day or between the day and year of the date as printed.
In such a system the passbook is fed with its lower edge leading into the apparatus and the lowermost stop mark is sensed. Then, after the passbook has been fed a predetermined distance after sensing or detection of the stop mark, the feed of the document is stopped, a new stop mark is printed and then the data is printed next to the stop mark.
The predetermined distance may be determined by means of a monostable multivibrator or the like which produces a motor stop signal after a predetermined length of time designed to correspond to said distance. However, this is disadvantageous in that the feed speed of the passbook varies due to frictional resistance, power supply variations and other factors and the new entry is not always printed in the proper position.
Another system such as disclosed in Japanese patent publications nos. 49-131732 and 49-116923 comprises a pulse generator driven by the document feed means in a synchronous manner. When a predetermined number of pulses have been counted after detection of the stop mark, the feed is stopped and the new stop mark and data entry printed. However, the circuitry required to embody such a system is complicated since it must comprise a counter, comparator means for comparing the count in the counter with the predetermined number and coincidence means for producing a signal when the compared numbers are equal. The same problems are involved in moving the passbook by a predetermined distance to print yet another line.
Another problem of the prior art which has been heretofore unsolved relates to the replacement of ink ribbons in the printer mechanism. Unless the stop marks have sufficient density, they will not be detected reliably. Generally, the stop marks must have a higher density than is required for legibility of the data entries. For this reason, the ribbons must be replaced at unnecessarily frequent intervals as far as legibility of printed data is concerned. This constitutes inefficient use of manpower and materials as well as economic waste.
Yet another problem of the prior art is that dirt and other foreign marks or matter on the passbooks are often erroneously detected as stop marks. Thus, the new data is printed below its proper position in the passbook.